Heavy fog causes 4 ferries to stall mid-trip on 2 Manikganj river routes

Heavy fog has halted ferry service on two river routes connecting Manikganj to Rajbari and Pabna. At least four ferries were stuck in the middle of the river due to the dense fog.

Officials at the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation said that ferry service was halted on the Aricha-Kazirhat route around midnight and the Paturia-Daulatdia route around 3am on Thursday. Four ferries - two on each river route – have stalled partway into their trips, they said.

The fog began to thicken on Wednesday evening, said Assistant General Manager Abdus Salam of the BIWTC’s Paturia office. Later, the visibility dropped at the marking point of the channel and the authorities halted ferry service at 3:10am on the routes to Shibalay Upazila’s Paturia and Goalanda Upazila’s Daulatdia.

Ferry service on both routes was disrupted at 1am on Thursday due to dense fog, he told bdnews24.com. The fog thickened further around 2am, dropping the visibility to the point the beacon light and marking point on the channel could not be seen. Hence, two ferries were anchored in the middle of the river.

The authorities later announced halting the ferry service at 3am to avoid accidents.

The ferry service will resume once the fog eases, said Mohammad Salahuddin, assistant general manager of Daulatdia Jetty Office.

On the other hand, ferry service has been halted temporarily on the Aricha-Kazirhat route since 11:50pm on Wednesday, said Deputy General Manager Nasir Mohammad Chowdhury of BIWTC Aricha office.

He added that two ferries were anchored in the middle of the river as dense fog caused visibility to drop and the beacon light and marking point could not be seen.